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Have to relate this story as its been so frustrating that all I can do now is laugh. I purchased a SIMRAD TP 32 in June for a solo sailing trip from Darwin to Langkawi. The tiller pilot survived until the first bit of rain about 10 hours short of Aceh city in North Sumatra. At which point it filled up with water and wouldn't function. I contacted Simrad and the best they could offer was to send a new one to Singapore. Out of desperation I rang them again and pleaded for them to send one to me in Aceh. They agreed to do this at my cost and I awaited more correspondence via email. Having to move on I gave up on Simrad and hand steered the rest of the way to Langkawi.
On return to Australia I sent the TP 32 back to them under warranty. In their returns policy it states that they would email me on receipt of the returned item. Hearing nothing from them I rang and was told nothing had been received. I waited till the following week and still no correspondence so contacted Australia post and found out that they had indeed received it two days before I rang Simrad. I called Simrad and confronted them with this at which point the guy on the phone disappeared for five minutes and then returned to confirm that yes they had infact received it! An hour after the phone call I recieved an email to confirm that the parcel had arrived. Another hour later I am emailed that a new TP 32 had been sent.
A few days later I find out they have sent the new unit to an address that was given in Aceh. Even though I am back here in Melbourne. Now I have recieved information that the parcel is being held by the courier company because there is $700 dollars owing on the shipment. Ive had countless phone calls and emails with Simrad and they have basically told me its my problem. So here I sit $1350 poorer and no tiller pilot. I have to say I'm disgusted at the way Simrad just don't seem to give a **** about their customers.
Did you go back to your local dealer / retailer where you purchased from?
Or is it a case you went the cheap option and brought on line to save $10s and got such outstanding back up service ????????
Not questioning this experience but my SIMRAD TP32 has withstood extraordinary hardship without a murmur. Still works 12 years later.
I've had three TP32 tiller pilot . The first was dodgy out of the box , returned to whitworths and they just gave me one of theirs and sent my one off to Simrad. The replacement was great for 2 months of coastal cruising ,then the compass went . Lots of dramas trying to deal direct with Simrad ,was told I had to upgrade software before I returned it etc . Gave up and called whitworths ,sent it to them and they dealt with Simrad . This one took 6 weeks to replace . Been all good since then . I now carry an ancient tiller pilot as a spare , just in case . Must say the TP 32 handled every thing that was thrown at it steering wise . My mate had to hand steer his cav 32 when the sea built up ,while I let "George" just do his thing without a problem.
CaptKilljoy said
I gave up on Simrad and hand steered the rest of the way to Langkawi.
The (cheapest and easily set up) alternative to hand steering is sheet to tiller.
I set it up most times I have a course of more than a couple of miles.
Practice makes perfect. I (and the system) are not perfect but I have got it pretty well worked out and can't recommend it enough.
Give it a few tries and I reckon you will be hooked like me.
This is not a replacement for a tiller pilot, but is really handy when the TP packs it in.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Sailing/General/Sheet-to-tiller-steering-video
Gary
ss 34s are heavy on the rudder down wind following sea especially the unbalanced skeg hung mk I
I installed a manual reset circuit breaker for my tiller pilot that is lower than max load draw. So when it gets too heavy it just trips out and I go manual.
Wow, I feel your pain, that is atrocious. Off to consumer Protection.......
It's not much help to you now, but Raymarine offer a global warranty which is one reason I opted for the ST2000+. Of course it had all sorts of problems too, but that's another story.
Just got my Pelagic Tiller pilot in the mail. Makes the Simrad look like a babies toy
I haven't fully set it up yet but looking at the manual it appears to have full steer to wind option and NMEA 2000
wiring.
Cheers, would be interesting to see, as so far, the only way I can see that you can do steer to wind with a full NMEA2000 system is by having a TP22 or TP32 with a converter cable. Surprising that there aren't tiller pilots designed to do it natively.
You can't beat a good windvane for self steering. Especially on a ss34. Mine steered through all sorts of weather. Granted it did lose a sheave but it still worked jury rigged from just off Australia all the way to St Lucia. Just after rounding Cape of Good Hope I had 8 days of steady 35 knots with a short steep following sea sailing at around 160 -180 degrees with a triple reefed main only. Watching the Flemming windvane work so hard was amazing. Not many electric auto pilots would have handled that. Setting it up to sail within 1 degree of your course in normal conditions is easy. Knowing you can fix it on the middle of the ocean is priceless.
i'll put a video up if anyone is interested
Sorry just having a few issues charging my laptop. I will put the video up as soon as I get the charger sorted. I did a blog before I left but didn't really do much once I was sailing.
